woody harrelson does not wear a beret when he directs. >> he doesn't but he does wear a neck class. >> mika, what did you learn? >> that's what i learned. what did you learn? >> i learned that you're cruel to people like woody harrelson who's given something to wear from a friend on the death bed. >> okay. time to wrap it up. no. i say what people are thinking chuck today is next. >> secret service sleeping. >> willie, it's way too early. >> hey, chuck. quite the handoff there guys. thanks. president obama starts the first week following his nomination with a little bounce in his step and perhaps some bounce in the polls with the election less than two months away. what can mitt romney do to turn the tide. the first debate can't come soon enough for him. and on the eve of the 9/11 anniversa anniversary, president obama is trumpeting his foreign policy successes while mitt romney warns iran is the president's biggest failure on his watch. we'll take a deep dive into the real threats to national security. and a big test for chicago mayor

and obama ally rahm emanuel. more than 400,000 students face no school today because they have no teachers after the city and the teachers' union failed to reach an agreement. good morning from washington. i remember this place. it's monday, september 10th, 2012. this is "daily rundown." i'm chuck todd. my monday first reads of the morning. with both conventions behind us, it's a 57-day sprint through nine battleground states. both campaigns quietly admit the president is ahead. the four candidates barnstormed through seven states over the last 72 hours. on "meet the press" mitt romney laid out the task ahead of him. >> i have really two months to be able to convince people i can do a better job than the incumbent. >> vice president biden has set up shop in ohio to give voters an almost daily reminder that romney once suggested it would be best to, quote, let detroit go bankrupt.

on "meet the press" romney did his best to shrink the distance between himself and the obama/biden ticket on that very issue with an altered explanation. >> my view was general motors should have gone into bankruptcy earlier. the president resisted that for months. i said, let them go into bankruptcy. help them come out but let them go in. i don't think most americans know that gm went bankrupt. >> it's that last sentence there. in other words, hey, it wasn't just me that was for bankruptcy. so was he. romney also clarified his opposition to obama care saying he'd keep some of the law's most popular features. >> there are a number of things that i like in health care reform that i'm going to put in place. one is to make sure that those with pre-existing conditions can get coverage. two is to assure that the marketplace allows for individuals to have policies that cover their family up to whatever age they might like. >> interesting. whatever age they might like there at the end. we'll get into that later.

in an interview with national review online a romney aide argued there was no change in romney's position on health care. quote, governor romney will ensure that discrimination with individuals with pre-existing conditions who maintain continuous coverage is prohibited. it's different than existing law which would require insurance companies to provide new coverage for people without it. now romney again tried to blame the president alone for a bipartisan debt deal that includes potential deep cuts in defense spending, but when pressed he also threw house republicans in for a criticism as well. i thought it was a mistake on the part of the white house to oppose it. i think it was a mistake for republicans to go along with it. >> but on the issue of tax reform and how he would get to a balanced budget, romney offered few specifics on which tax loopholes he'd eliminate. >> give me an example of a loophole you will close. >> well, i can tell you that people at the high end, high income taxpayers are going to have fewer deductions and exengss. those numbers are going to come

down. >> paul ryan, just as evasive on specifics saying not till after the election. >>. >> we want to have this debate with congress and we want to do this with the consent of the elected representatives of the people. >> over the weekend some methodologically questionable polling showed movement towards the president. before we join the hype we'll wait and see what polling from organization that is don't have a history of some odd september swing show but whether or not the president's bounce in the polls is real. the president is clearly showing a bounce in his own step and the romney campaign seems to be acting as if they're behind. campaigning in florida sunday, he fired back at the romney/ryan ticket for their lack of specifics from sunday talk shows. >> you have to do the math because when my opponents were asked about it today, they couldn't. it was like, two plus one equals five. that's not bold leadership, that's bad math.

>> and the president even cracked a birther joke as he chatted with a 6-year-old boy at a florida sports bar who told him he was born in hawaii. >> you were born in hawaii. >> do you have a birth certificate? >> later the president got a whole new lesson in retail politics when he got a very unthese see as stick welcome from this florida pizza shop owner. >> everybody look at these guns. if i eat your pizza,ly look like that? >> you got it. here. come on, man. i've got to give one of these. >> it's the bear hug seen around the world. this guy is making the rounds on television as we speak. meanwhile, over the weekend romney seemed like a candidate focused sometimes on the primary rather than the general election. i was struck by the fact that he appeared with tell evangelist pat robinson while in virginia beach and then he found himself

endorsing congressman steve king in iowa who, of course, is best known for his tough antiimmigration rhetoric. romney managed a nascar photo op despite bad weather and he warned of secularism with a reference to the democrats omission of god for at least a while from the party platform, language that was hastily put-back in later. >> i will not take god out of the nail of our platform. i will not take god off our coins and i will not take god out of my heart. >> i have to say, again, i just don't get 57 days, this doesn't seem like swing voter appeals. doesn't feel like he's trying to appeal to suburban swing voters. finally, more proof this morning that money will not decide this race. for the first time in five months team obama outraised team romney. the campaign and dnc and their campaign raised $114 million.

it was $2 million more than the combined romney haul. where is that money going? this weekend the romney campaign went up with their first ad in wisconsin. it's now the ninth state that they're advertising in. romney is still not buying time in pennsylvania and michigan, states the campaign keep telling us they want to put in play. so what does that mean? it means winning the big three, florida, ohio and virginia even more critical. this week the obama campaign will get help in the sunshine state from former president bill clinton. he will campaign at fiu on tuesday and hold an event in orlando on wednesday. the president joked this weekend about clinton's role. >> somebody sent out a tweet. they said, you should appoint him secretary of explaining stuff. although i have to admit, it didn't really say stuff. i cleaned that up a little bit. >> you're going to see clinton in three states more than most. florida, ohio, and nevada. mark my words. today mitt romney is back in

ohio. he holds an event this afternoon in a plant in the northern part of the state, but we'll see. one thing by the way, i think it's a topic we brought up here on the show but it's something worth talking about. we know other republicans are having this conversation, which is how does romney break from the bush republican past? how does he create separation? remember bill clinton's biggest hurdle in 1992 was part of proving he wasn't part of the carter, mondale, dukakis mold. it was that they were weak leaders, whether that was fair or not. he went out of his way. his whole campaign at times was proving that, whether it was the death penalty that he went ahead with, ricky ray rector, very controversial because of his mental status. all of that was designed to show that he was different than the old democratic party. the memory that the country might have had of the democratic party in the presidency. romney hasn't done that yet. we know he's getting a lot of

advice saying he should do it, but he has struggled to figure out how to do that. keep an eye on that over the next couple of weeks. after a five-week break congress comes back to work. it's sort of fake work. it's a very short session ahead of the election. they're up against a ton of deadlines but will they get anything done. joining me is nbc capitol hill correspondent luke russert. look, they may get one thing done but it's a punt and they may get a second thing done having to do with drought relief; that aborelie relief, is that it? >> yeah. we're back to work with people trying to achieve status in terms of their political ideology. what we see are two things congress needs to get done. they need to pass a continuing resolution that's a government funding bill. the government runs out of money by september 30th. we're told there's going to be a

temporary punting bill that will keep the government funded until march of next year. it's going to be the house later this week, up for a vote, possibly done by the senate. drought relief very important to most folks. states like iowa, ohio that need some of this drought relief. there's this idea of possibly attaching an extension of a one-year farm bill to a government funding bill. that hasn't been figured out yet quite in its entirety. this wednesday there is a big rally of farmers here in washington so you're going to hear a lot of that issue. chuck, it would seem to me and for a lot of folks through conversations i've had on capital hill that the most ambitious thing they will get done is the continuing resolution to fund government. they don't want a government shutdown fight before the election. >> let me stop you there, luke. the most ambitious thing they might get done is puntding? >> if they punt. >> correct. the defense cuts, bush tax cuts. all those issues that are

expiring december 31st. they won't be touched before the election. we'll try to fund the government to make sure the election can happen uninterrupted, chuck. >> luke, russert, 11 days, right? 11 days of awesomeness in congress. >> luke russert, enjoy it. i've got senator chuck schumer. another financial cliff looming. new details on the most recent round of bitter budget talks. he gives his take. plus we're live in chicago where rahm emanuel has a colossal mess on his hands. the teachers of the country's thirds largest school district are officially on strike. first, a look ahead as the president's schedule and mitt romney's schedule later today. the president taking a down day after a weekend of campaigning. he's at the white house. mitt romney of course in ohio. does a whole bunch of a rally

and a whole bunch of interviews. "daily rundown" only on msnbc. stick with us. up next. sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering so, i'm walking down the street, sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering just you know walking, sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering and i found myself in the middle of this parade honoring america's troops. which is actually quite fitting because geico has been serving the military for over 75 years. aawh no, look, i know this is about the troops and not about me. right, but i don't look like that. who can i write a letter to about this?

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miscalculations and missed opportunities led to the demise of last summer's grand bargain on the debt according to a new book out this week. author bob woodward lays the blame squarely at the feet of the president and to an extent his counterpart in negotiations, speaker boehner. in his book "the price of politics." earlier i spoke to the number 3 democrat in the senate, chuck schumer in the senate. i asked him about the idea that they had to go it alone.

>> it was very hard because speaker boehner keeps moving the hard right guys. my recollection is that the cooperation between leader reed and the president was quite strong. >> well, there seems to be a moment that's getting a lot of attention where david krone almost lectures the president saying you were stuck in the position you were stuck with, having to do a two-step process to raise the debt ceiling because the white house didn't have a plan b. is that your recollection? >> not well. my recollection is the white house won. boehner wanted the debt ceiling to expire before the election. the white house said, no way, and eventually boehner caved. >> do you think the white house took any lessons away from that near deal on the grand bargain but what ended up happening and what lessons are those? >> yeah. i think the lesson pretty much is that you can't just have an

inside game. you can't sit people around the table without going to the public and explaining exactly what you're doing and why you're doing it. i think we're seeing much more of that now and it's quite effective? >> you're to sort of get public support for the grand bargain? >> correct. >> i want to move to what happens if there's a president romney. what would a working relationship be between senate democrats and a president romney? >> it's too early to tell. we'd first have to figure out what his positions are. you could see why he doesn't like to go on these sunday talk shows by what happened on "meet the press." bill clinton said he was missing one word, arithmetic. he's missing two words, arithmetic and honesty in terms of how he presents his plans -- his tax plans to the american people. you can't do three things at once. you can't lower taxes

dramatically on the wealthy, which is what the ryan budget calls for, lower taxes on the middle class, and balance the budget. it's just impossible. and when romney was asked he said, well, i'm not going to have the wealthy, he totally reversed himself. his whole primary, we have to have the wealthiest people get lower taxes. now he's saying i'm not going to reduce the taxes on them but i'm going to lower the rate significantly. that's what the ryan budget says. and instead i'll close loopholes. 90% of the loopholes affect the middle class which will raise their taxes. when he was asked a single loophole that he would close on the wealthy he wouldn't answer. that's not being -- that's not being fair to the american people. it's not being honest about your budget plans. you can't have it every which way. he's sort of digging a hole deeper and deeper because the convention sort of portrayed him as correctly, i think, as thinking the only thing he needs to do is make the wealthiest people pay lower taxes, have less regulation and the economy

will be fine. we want wealthy people to do well, but that's not enough. >> what is it about the president's plan that you feel like is enough detail that the public knows what it is? i mean, right now do you feel like the president's put out enough detail in what he wants to do? >> yes, he sure has and he's made it clear what he would do to bring in about a trillion dollars in income without raising taxes on the middle class, people below 250,000 by $1. he's talked in some detail about medicare. you know, now ryan has talked in some detail about medicare, fair enough, but on the tax and revenue side, both of them sort of play that -- you know, it's sort of that game with the pea. try to find where the cuts are because they're not saying where they are. and every economist will tell you -- you know, the cuts on tax expenditures, the reductions of those tax expenditures. it's find the hidden pea.

you can't run a presidential campaign like that. not only is it not fair and not honest with the american people but it catches up with you and that's why romney had such trouble on the shows yesterday. >> if the president wins re-election, why is this -- why is suddenly his dealings with congress going to be any different than they've been the last four years? >> okay. very good question. i think the chances -- i'm more optimistic than most about getting a grand bargain. if the president wins the election by a significant amount of points, and we in the senate basically hold our number of seats, and why is that? because there are two groups of republicans in the house and senate. there are hard right people who don't want to compromise or idea owe logs who think compromise is a dirty word. there are main street conservatives, not moderates, make no mistake about it, but they do believe in sitting down and working things out with democrats and if they are given the upper hand after the election because the embrace of the tea party was a failure because romney has embraced the tea party, particularly with the

selection of ryan, you could get a deal. i know though want a deal. i've talked to five, ten of these republicans in the senate and they would like to do it but they're afraid. they're afraid of the results in indiana, etc. >> i've had those same conversations with some of these republicans -- senate republicans, but their frustration is they feel like the white house never reached out to them. >> the white house reached out to them. to them? i think that may be true. they went through the leadership only and that -- you may see that as a change. you may see the white house reaching out to more individual members. >> all right. senator chuck schumer, democrat from new york. i've got to leave it there. number three in senate leadership. big yankees fan. you were gloating. >> no, i was not gloating. i was relieved they finally are a game in first. >> we'll be watching september baseball. thank you, sir. after friday's disappointing jobs numbers, will the fed step up with a jolt for wall street? plus, even mitt romney's advisors seem to acknowledge that the republican is behind

right now. we'll talk to house majority whip kevin mccarthy next. we went from number three in the senate to number three in the house. first today's trivia question, who was the first president to use the oval office that president obama uses today? tweet me. the answer and more coming up on "the daily rundown." i love my '80s metal rock. >> announcer: "the daily rundown" is brought to you by choice hotels. ♪ ♪ ♪

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congress returns today. with the election less than two months away, they seem poised to do as little as possible. congressional republicans are getting no love from the guy at the top of their ticket. listen to this. >> this see quest administration is a problem.

>> the leaders agreed to the deal. >> i thought it was a mistake on the part of the white house to oppose it. i think it was a mistake for republicans to go along with it. >> joining me now the house majority whip, california house republican kevin mccarthy. i'm having a bay area hangover. my packers lost to the niners and so i don't want to talk about bay area sports. >> that was a good field goal, you've got to give them that. quite a field goal. >> i want to start with -- i ended with sports so i thought i'd start with sports. i want to start with governor romney's critique. you were charged, house republicans, with getting the votes for this deal that included sequester. do you agree with governor romney or is he wrong? >> remember what the deal was. the deal was a debt limit where you had a president walk away, where you're dealing in the final hours and the only idea that the democrats had was this so-called super committee. so republicans went along to make sure the cliff did not fall off and then what happened in the super committee, republicans offered an idea.

democrats did not. republicans all along have never gone through with the sequestration. we've offered the ability to fix it. we 06d a plan so you never went to it. it's the democrats that walked away. what's more importantly here, when you're talking about the book that just came out, it comes from the white house. the white house never had another plan and then you watch the president walk away from one of the biggest negotiations to actually have a good agreement. you know the worst thing is -- >> do you really think though -- let's talk about that agreement. >> yes. >> do you really think you could have solid $800 billion, that they were 200 -- you guys were determined to have 218 republicans sign on to this deal? that you could have had 218 republicans sign on to $800 billion in tax cuts? i mean, this is where the he said/he said goes on here which is who walked away from which deal? everybody believes their deal -- that the other side walked away from their deal. >> well, just being around during that time, i remember the situation i remember when the

president i remember watching the president go on tv when we were a couple days away saying he wasn't going to sign anything that he ended up signing. it was like a spoiled child. that is not what you need in that situation. the difficulty here is, looking at government, usually in divided government we're able to achieve big things. bill clinton got together with bob dole and newt gingrich and reformed welfare. you had ronald regan get together with tip o'neal and reform the tax code. it takes leadership from the white house. you can't walk away. >> whose idea was it to make the debt ceiling leverage. >> that all came from the white house and harry reed. >> the whole reason we were at the debt ceiling showdown though was because for the first time in years the house republicans weren't going to just give a de facto vote on the debt ceiling. >> no. no. no. let's be honest. the whole reason we were at the debt ceiling, because washington spends too much money.

the whole reason we were at a debt ceiling because we've had trillion dollar deficits year over year and no budget being passed. the american people are asking to balance the budget. when we sat down with the credit individuals and said if you went through the same way you've gone through past copying ingressing downgrade you. they put america on a different path. that's the difference. >> you don't think this was a washington made economic crisis because there didn't seem to be this crisis for the markets and for potential economic calamity without the political decision to make the debt decision a part of the political crisis. >> they spent more than they brought in. they don't pass a budget. washington has created this problem because they spend too much. every credit agency came in and said they would downgrade us if you continue to go down this path. republicans believed in creating something different, actually putting us on a fiscal path to

paying down the debt and having a balanced budget. >> what do you think mitt romney's got to do to sort of get back control of this campaign a little bit? >> well, let's not overreact here. you know jimmy carter was ahead right now, dukakis was, what, 17 points ahead coming out of the democratic convention. >> not in september coming out of the republican convention. >> coming out of the democratic convention. let's remember this. this is when people start to focus. i think he has to lay out his plan. show the difference. the american public understand what has zblapd do you think he needs to do a little more detail? >> well, i think he needs to go to the voters and see what america would look like under him. i think people are just now beginning to focus as much. so from a couple different stand points here, i think the best speaker coming out of the democratic convention was bill clinton. i don't think obama did very well. i think they know what to expect four years from now. show the difference. people are now looking at it, weighing where they want to go and i think the polls are going to begin to move.

the president continues to buy the nation. the sad part i have as an american, you don't want to divide this nation anymore to be able to achieve. at the end of the day we won't be able to divide. if you divide us state by state, people by people, we will fail. >> kevin mccarthy, number three on the house republican side. thank you for coming on this morning. >> thanks for having me. well, it's the start of a big week for the markets. federal reserve has a big meeting on thursday. certain silicon valley company is unveiling a new product. on wednesday opening bell just rang. market rundown. i've got brian sullivan here. brian, very fast, what you got? >> the markets are opening lower here. again, you mentioned it. a huge week. not a lot of data on tap today. the fed on thursday, widely expected another round of quantity tatetive easing is likely. w50e6' got a big ruling in germany about whether or not their bailout is constitutional. the markets spooked about that. the company you referenced of course is apple. big unveil of something or

somethings on wednesday. they're notoriously secret. i will be out there on wednesday covering the event for cnbc. >> they suckered us in, right? >> listen, as a guy that spends summers up north at green bay, 49ers look pretty good. >> they did. >> i hear you talking. got to say. >> it's painful but they did. thank you, sir. >> take care, man. >> all right. ahead of tomorrow's 9/11 anniversary, taking a deep dive into the state of our national security and the politics behind it. "daily rundown" will be back in 30 seconds. >> announcer: brought to you by allianz, one of the top three asset managers in the world. providing information through its affiliated companies since 1896.

in today's deep dive, it's been over shadowed by the economy. democrats believe they have the edge on the issue and they proved it by hammering mitt romney repeatedly during their convention. of course, romney himself left them a huge opening when he failed to mention the troops or afghanistan in his convention speech. he's been trying to clean up that mess ever since. he had two shots at it over the last few days. here's what he said. >> i find it interesting that people are curious about mentioning words in a speech as opposed to policy. and so i went to the american legion the day before i gave that speech. >> you weren't speaking to tens of millions of people when you went to the american legion. >> you know what i found, wherever i go i am speaking to tens of millions of people. >> do you regret opening up this line of attack, now a recurring attack, by leaving out that issue in the speech? >> i only regret you're repeating it day in and day out. i didn't use the word troops, i used the term military. i think they refer to the same

thing. >> well, in an effort to regain his footing romney tried to pivot on the president's record on foreign policy, which he said is mixed. >> i think one can say that he's had some successes and he's had some failures. and perhaps the biggest failure is the -- is as it relates to the greatest threat that america faces and the world faces, which is the nuclear iran. the president has not drawn us further away from a nuclear iran. in fact, iran is closer to having a weapon, closer to having nuclear capability than when he took office. >> with me now, former white house counter terrorism official. steve clemens is a foreign policy expert with the new american foundation in washington. steve, i want to start with you and that last day of the democratic convention which had more national security that i've seen at a democratic national convention. it was different from kerrys. they did this whole reporting for duty as a way to try to help build him up comparatively to bush. this was an aggressive tactic on

that final night. >> i think the president has felt very good. this is the guy that took out osama bin laden, he's taken out a bunch of pirates. he's buffered the american public from a lot of terrorism nightmares and they're trying to take credit for what they've done. at the same time while he's embracing the soldiers and the pentagon, the other story is he's withdrawn from iraq and drawing down the footprint in afghanistan. he's trying to say i am a smart commander in chief and i'm weighing the equities. we're adjusting them. we're not afraid as democrats to stand with our soldiers. >> roger, do you feel like you understand the obama doctrine on foreign policy? >> it's pretty 12r5i6d, straigh. it's that it's a clear and present danger. then for the tougher issues such as iran, it is taking all the different arrows in the quiver and applying it. covert action, diplomatic, economic. for the big power states, russias and chinas, it's a

little bit different. it's the reality of an economic relationship while at the same time trying to persuade them to do the right things on issues such as libya, syria, things like that. >> steve, is the reset with russia a failure with this administration? is that one of the glaring -- when you think about what is holding up american diplomacy with syria, american diplomacy with iran, isn't it russia? >> we were on a collision course with russia over the georgia interaction, over other points when obama came in. getting off that course at the time was very important. whether it held with everything else -- >> is it better? >> i agree with roger. this is one area where you have to give mitt romney at least a point if he accidentally stumbled into it, but the biggest challenge the united states faces is shaping iran's choices in the world. that's not going to come from sanctions. it's not going to come from bombing them. it's showing that you can sculpt the international system.

part of that means moving russia, moving china. with russia what you have is a resurgent national, almost in their own terms a reaganesque moment where they've decided to use syria and some of these other points in the world to show their own people for domestic reasons that they can stand tough against the united states. that's a problem for us. >> you know, roger, when you say romney sort of stumbled into them, you know, maybe they're not the number one geopolitical threat to the united states but they're a geopolitical rival. >> they're a big rival. >> they're a rival, partner, adversary. >> everything. >> in a weird way we got them in the wto. that's a partnership. >> exactly. >> they're basically facing us down in every major foreign policy. >> the reality of foreign policy is you do not have a single issue drives with a particular country. there are a multitude of issues. every candidate when they're on the campaign trail, they talk a good game. they get into office and the realities of foreign policy and national security take over. so if romney becomes a president, he is going to be faced with a menu of tough and

bad options and he's going to have to make decisions based on the reality of what he has to offer. >> steve, is it bad that we're not having a moral debate on the drone war? >> yes. i think we ought to have several debates on the drone war. when you're a super power, you have to deploy yourself in different ways. one thing president obama has not yet done is when your stock of power is low, when you're militarily over extended, you can't exactly guide everybody else in the world and tell them how to run an economy, you can use institutions. you can do global deal making, treaties to negotiate what kind of war are we going to have? some day the other side will have drones. some days this will be a return. what does america stand for? my political science professors taught me something important. you never know the norms of a country unless you see it under stress. when we're under stress doing certain things that may be in the short run, roger has supported this, showing a deployment but we're not codifying that in a body of

sbr international law, we're going to pay a price for that. >> is there a great fear in the terrorism community that decisions are getting made on drone attacks because, for instance, we just don't have a good capture policy? >> no. i disagree with steve that the drone is not a strategy. it's a weapon. it is the single most effective tool we have used against al qaeda since 9/11. the reason why president obama took it and ramped it up is because faced with the other options, this was the best option. i do agree we need to have a little bit of a debate, but there is bipartisan consensus in washington about the effectiveness of the drone program in dealing with al qaeda but it's not a strategy in and of itself. what we need going forward is a strategy to deal with these rump organizations in countries like yemen, western africa in dealing with the new type of al qaeda phenomenon. >> all right. roger, steve, i've got to leave it there. i would go on longer but my producers will get mad. teachers in chicago hitting

the picket lines after they failed to reach a contract agreement. it's chicago's first teacher's strike in nerl nearly 25 years. it's left nearly 400,000 kids out of school indefinitely. mayor emanuel is calling it unnecessary, avoidable and wrong. >> i am disappointed that we have come to this point given that even though all the other parties acknowledge how close we are because this is a strike of choice. and because of how close we are it is a strike that is unnecessary. >> joining me now from chicago is nbc's kevin tibbels. rahm emanuel, close advisor to the president, was just about to take up raising more money for the president's super pac. no time for that now. >> well, first off, chuck, i hope you can hear me. i'm having a heck of a time hearing you outside of the ray elementary school here in chicago where the teachers are out in frors and some kids are actually screaming into this school. this is one of the schools that they've set up to take in kids

for half a day in chicago. they've done that with 140 schools. as you just mentioned, this is going to be a huge problem for mayor rahm emanuel if this strike starts to stretch on. obviously president obama wants the labor vote, the labor support. the optics of this with all of these teachers standing behind me and the fact that the kids aren't in the schools obviously isn't going to be looking very good for either of those two gentlemen as we get closer to the election. you know, money really doesn't seem to be the issue here. there are a lot of side issues, especially when it comes to things like teacher reviews and dismissal of teachers and the like. they're also very concerned about class sizes. this is a very big school district. the third largest in the country. there are a lot of impoverished areas in the center of chicago where kids are having a very hard time and while the teachers say they want to help these kids, they're also saying that their hands are tied because of a lack of funding. so it's a real issue here in

chicago today. they're going to be meeting again today. let's see whether or not they can hammer this thing out. >> kevin tibbles live for us in chicago. remember the president's education secretary, arounie duncan ran the chicago schools. this is about democratic mayors, teachers unions. they've been butting heads in a lot of cities around the country. this is the highest profile battle next. up next our political panel will be here. romney campaign a little defensive as they serve for an elusive bounce. first, white house soup of the day. it's a little cold outside to be serving this. it's a gazpacho day. you can always follow the show on facebook. you're watching "the daily rundown." if the soup is tomato tomorrow, we know it's nothing but w5r78d over gazpacho. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪

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several new polls, a lot of which we're not big fans of so that's why we haven't been promoting them too much, but they do show something in common. a convention bounce for the president. and the romney campaign is out with a new memo, frankly a very defensive memo today from their pollster who writes, quote, don't -- first line, don't get too worked up about the latest polling. while some voters will feel a bit of a sugar high from the conventions, the basic structure of the race has not changed significantly. the reality of the obama economy will re-assert itself as the ultimate downfall of the obama presidency and mitt romney will win this race. let's bring in our monday panel. dan balls, chief correspond a dent for the washington post who just marked his 1500th front page story for that illustrious paper. i have michelle bernard and susan ferreccio.

we've got to give the man -- that is something else. >> congratulations. >> susan, i want to start with you. just the first line of this memo screams we're losing, does it not? >> except if you read through the whole memo. they make excellent points but they bury the lead. when you talk to pollsters and they talk about the upcoming elections, one of the most important things is energy and enthusiasm. most who are most enthusiastic are republican voters. what this boils down it is who shows up to vote. if republicans are more enthusiastic, you're more likely to get a much stronger turnout. >> do you think that's the theory of the case? there are no swing voters left? >> no. i think that they would be following th fooling themselves if they thought that. i think they feel they have to hammer in on the economy because that's the only issue where the romney campaign seems to have an argument that people might be willing to listen to. we've said it time and time again now.

to me the big issue is is it the economy or is it going to be dem graphics. you look at that bump coming out of the democratic convention and i think it leads to the conclusion that there is going to be a heavy emphasis from the obama campaign on dem graphics because there are many, many people who feel left out. if those people show up in large numbers, it could be a slim victory. >> dan, i feel like the two of them have captured it, the two theories of the case, right? the obama campaign betting that basically the numbers are on their side state by state. they've put romney in a demographic box meanwhile romney still thinks eventually there's going to be a bunch of these voters that say, wait a minute, we just have to go somewhere else. >> the truth is, you know, with two months left, either side in the end could be right. i think one of the interesting things about neil's memo is the line, the basic structure in the race has not changed significantly. >> but i was just going to say, he threw that word in there. >> up to now everything --

anybody would have written, whether it was neil new house. >> it suggests there has been a small change as a result of the convention. we don't know how much and we don't obviously know whether it's lasting. >> susan, the big ush u of course to me when i look at this is that at this moment in time when you look at bill clinton -- when you look at when the other party was on the verge of winning the presidency, at this moment in time we were talking about new states. the fact of the matter is it's the same nine states we've had in tossup. they're advertising in wisconsin. some of us are wondering what took so long. no pennsylvania and no michigan. they have a narrow path. >> that's true. it's so early right now. it's only just a couple of days after the convention for the democrats and we really have to wait to see what some polls leak like. >> i'm with you. september 15th is when you measure the bounce. >> that's exactly right. >> one of the ways i want to measure the bounce is not head to head. it's more for romney likability and for the president it is on

these feelings of -- >> that's when those swing states will matter. >> want to bring up something romney said on "meet the press." on this issue of empathy, here's what he said. >> i really think that those re people that try and minimize the feeling and the connection we have with the american people really miss the mark very badly and they're trying to divide americans based on who has money and who was able to achieve success and who does not have as much. >> i was struck -- it was in that answer, also in ann romney's answer, this to me, it's all about ohio. why is ohio -- why are they behind in ohio, that the romney folks and the romneys i think personally feel as if there have been unfair personal attacks on their wealth. >> i'm sure that they feel that way. i don't know if the attacks are fair or unfair, but if you talk to people who are under empl employed -- >> fair or unfair, they've worked in ohio. >> it's going to work in ohio, it's going to work in other

states. the big empathy factor. the person you ended up being enthusiastic about was ann romney and she's not running for president. it is her husband. you got a feeling from every single speaker that they understand what has happened to people who are unemployed. >> but empathy isn't everything. >> likability coupled with empathy. >> empathy isn't everything. and this race still is much more about the economy than it is likability. stick around. trivia time. we asked who was the first president to use the oval office that president obama uses today? the answer is fdr. now, in 1909, william howard taft was the first president to use an oval office. but in 1933, fdr enlarged the west wing and moved the location of the redesigned oval office. and that's where it is today. i know some of you said teddy as well. if you have a political trivia question you think should be on the show, as archean as you want it to be, e-mail us. we'll be right back.

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let's bring back the panel. susan, does the romney campaign need to provide more specifics on their tax plan before the debate so that they take away that talking point for the president before the first debate? >> well, first they were criticizing romney because his tax plan was too complicated. it had 54 points. >> 59. >> then he gets up there and he breaks his whole economic plan into five points. and now everyone's saying -- >> he was getting criticism from republicans at the time for not being simple enough. >> you can't be too complicated when you're talking about the tax code. i think it sounds fine to me. i think this is more -- >> do you think romney needs to do more in? are we going to see a big policy speech before the first debate? >> we need to see a big policy speech before the debate. >> he needs to fill in those details. >> it feels like they know it. >> the debates have to provide

that format. >> do you wait until the debates? >> i think it would be better to do it before the debates. >> shameless plug. i'll start with you. >> i'm going to plug our calmness today. the conventions and what they mean for both parties. >> capital city chapter of the links incorporated s sponsoring a health walk on saturday at washington, d.c. from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. come on out and join us. >> our friend publishes "the victory lap." very interesting book. >> total geekdom there. mine is dominion power. thank you for keeping my power off this weekend, because actually, i didn't have to watch the packer debacle or the dodger debacle that all took place on the left coast. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." we'll see you back here tomorrow. coming up next, chris jansing. bye-bye. machines, tools, people making stuff.

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